With the large-scale deployment of the 3rd-generation (3rd-generation, 3G) mobile network, data services are used more and more widely. For an operator, a desirable quality of service (Quality of Service, QoS) needs to be provided in order to enhance competitiveness.
A policy mechanism system for a data service is provided in the prior art, the architecture of which is as shown in FIG. 1. The system includes a policy and charging rule function apparatus (Policy and Charging Rules Function, PCRF) 11, an application function (Application Function) apparatus 12, a subscription profile repository (Subscription Profile Repository, SPR) 13, a gateway (Gateway) device 14, and a charging apparatus 15. The charging apparatus 15 may be an online charging system (Online Charging System, OCS) or an offline charging system (Offline Charging System, OFCS), and may perform real-time charging for a subscriber according to traffic or duration statistics in a gateway. The PCRF may perform a service data flow control policy decision according to subscriber information from the subscription profile repository 13, bearer level information of the gateway device 14, some local policies locally configured at the PCRF or service level information of the application function apparatus 12, so as to determine a service data flow control policy. The gateway device 14 controls a service data flow according to the service data flow control policy, thereby ensuring the quality of service.
Referring to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a policy control method according to the prior art.
The policy control method in the prior art includes:
A1. A PCRF receives a total traffic use quota from an SPR.
A2. The PCRF generates a service data flow control policy, where the control policy includes a monitoring keyword, a use information report event trigger, and a traffic use threshold determined according to the total traffic use quota.
A3. The PCRF sends the control policy to a gateway device.
A4. The gateway device performs policy control on a data flow of a subscriber service according to the control policy, and accumulates traffic of the data flow that passes through the gateway and satisfies the policy.
A5. When an accumulated value of the gateway apparatus reaches the use threshold specified in the control policy, or the accumulated value does not reach the use threshold specified in the control policy but satisfies data flow interruption of the policy, or the accumulated value satisfies another data flow use information report condition, the gateway device reports the accumulated traffic information to the PCRF, where the use information includes the monitoring keyword and accumulated traffic information.
A6. The PCRF deducts the reported accumulated traffic information from the total traffic use quota. If the service needs to continue and a total traffic use quota after the deduction is greater than zero, it is considered that a new use quota needs to be delivered to the gateway device, steps A2 to A5 are repeated until eventually the subscriber data flow service stops, and step A7 is executed. If the total traffic use quota after the deduction is equal to or smaller than zero, indicating that the total use quota is used up, the control policy of the service flow is adjusted according to an operator policy or a subscriber policy, and a new data flow control policy is sent to the gateway device until eventually the subscriber data flow service stops, and step A7 is executed.
A7. After the service stops, the PCRF saves the rest of the total traffic use quota in the SPR.
During an implementation process of the present invention, the inventor finds that in the prior art the PCRF may implement policy control based on traffic accumulation but cannot implement policy control of the data flow based on charging relevant information of the subscriber, so flexibility is low and service experience of the subscriber is poor.